The Wedding
by Skate-815
Summary: With Booth as the best man, and Brennan as the maid of honour, what could possibly go wrong in my alternate version of the second season finalie? a one shot, with plenty of BB and implied Hodgela, and it's my first Bones fic, so be nice!


**The Wedding**

**There's probably a lot of fics with similar titles to this, so if anyone wants this changed, just say the word.**

**My first bones fic, and it's a one shot. I know it's very long, but the only alternative was to split it into two chapters, and I couldn't find a good place, so sorry about that. I hope you enjoy this anyway.**

Booth stood in the blazing summer sun, just outside his house, waiting on his partner, Temperance Brennan, to arrive in her car to take him to the wedding of Angela Montenegro and Jack Hodgins.

Today had not been going well for him so far. He'd awoken late that morning, knowing that either his alarm clock hadn't gone off, or more likely, he'd just slept all the way through it. After a rushed breakfast, during which he had knocked an entire carton of milk onto the floor, he'd raced out to the car, only to notice that he had a flat tire.

To cut a long story short, in normal circumstances, he would simply have changed it himself, but he figured that seeing as today _really_ didn't seem to be his day, he decided to leave it to a later date, when perhaps he wouldn't manage to injure himself.

Brennan had sounded annoyed when he called, but he put that down to the stress that was building for her as Angela's maid of honour. The hour of the wedding was growing ever closer, and she wasn't the only one to be on edge as their last few hours of freedom fast approached. Booth was glad, for once, that he wasn't married, because the added pressures of the wedding would surely have made a more uptight man than Hodgins blow a blood vessel long before now.

Booth slipped into the passenger side as soon as the familiar car drew up outside his house, and he flashed his partner an apologetic smile

"You will not believe the morning I've had."

"Me too." She agreed, "Getting Angela ready has been the more difficult than dressing a small child. Where do you want dropped off. The church or Hodgins' place?"

"Whatever's easier for you?" He noticed the dark circles underneath her eyes, and frowned, "Late night last night?"

"Angela wanted to, and I quote, 'go out in style'" Brennan grimaced, "Apparently that involved hitting every bar within a ten mile radius." He laughed, sensing her obvious dislike for the situation.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, and Booth watched the world sail by through the window. He noticed her glance at him once and then again out of the corner of his eye, but pretended he didn't. Finally, after several more glances his way, he forced an almost lazy aspect into his tone and asked

"Something wrong, Bones?"

"No" was her automatic response, and he left it like that, returning to the window.

He had always found Bones difficult to read, but lately, she was growing ever increasingly frustrating. At times, he could be so certain that she liked him. So sure that if he was to ask her on a date, she'd say yes. That if he were to kiss her, she would respond. But then, there was Sully. It was obvious to him that despite what she liked to portray, she still missed her ex. Maybe she only felt for him as a friend, as he had for her at the very beginning of their relationship. Maybe his were the only feelings to grow into something else. Something a great deal more frightening, but yet more exciting at the same time.

"You look hot" her words broke into the silence, and he twisted his head quickly, wondering if he'd heard her correctly. The impassive expression on her face was enough to make him doubt his hearing.

"Pardon?"

"You look hot, Booth. Do you want me to turn on the air conditioning?"

"Oh." Of course she hadn't meant what he'd thought. His mind had leapt effortlessly to exactly what he'd wanted to hear, and now he felt more frustrated with her and his love life in general than ever.

* * *

The remaining five minutes to Hodgins' mansion of a house seemed like a lifetime, and the car had barely shuddered to a halt when Booth practically bolted out of it.

"See you at the church, Booth!" Brennan called after him, looking oblivious to his unease. He called something to the affirmative of that, and disappeared as quickly as he could into Hodgins' house.

"Hodgins?" he called uncertainly as he walked through the doorway, his voice echoing slightly in the massive hallway. Upon receiving no response, he began to feel slightly guilty for invading his house without so much as knocking.

"Hodgins? You better be up!"

When no reply was given, he started up the staircase, taking them two at a time, and stood by the master bedroom door, inside of which he had deposited a barely conscious Jack the night before. Gently pushing the door open, Booth sighed as he saw Hodgins in the exact position he had left him in, chest rising and falling slowly.

"Squints" he muttered, rolling his eyes as he crossed the cluttered floor, "They can never handle their booze." He gently shook him, before slapping him lightly on the face, the latter of which elicited a groan, followed by a few expletives.

"Booth?" a confused expression crossed the scientist's face, "Where's Angela?"

"At home, getting ready for your wedding." A flash of horror flickered across his face, before realisation

"What time is it?"

"About two hours later than you should have been up." Cursing again, Hodgins stumbled off to shower, and Booth sat down on his bed, absentmindedly taking out his phone and dialling Brennan's number, just for something to do.

"How's it going on your end?" he asked as soon as she answered.

"We're good Seeley, and how's that husband to be of mine?" he was momentarily thrown to hear Angela's voice instead of his partner, but he smiled into the phone, and replied

"He's great! He's nearly ready. Can I speak to Bones?"

"Sure, but don't keep her too long. I want her opinion on something before we leave."

"Before you leave?" Booth checked his watch

"Didn't Jack tell you? The time was brought forward last week. He will be ready, won't he?" the threatening tone made Booth reconsider the truth.

"Yeah, he's nearly ready. So what time did you say it was?"

"We'll be at the church in ten minutes. Here's Brennan."

"Great. See you there."

"Booth" Brennan sounded even more tired than before

"Stall her."

"What?"

"I just woke Hodgins' up. He isn't going to be ready."

"For how long?"

"As long as possible!"

"I'll see what I can do"

"Thanks" he hung up as he heard the fall of water cease from the bathroom. "Hodgins! You didn't tell me the wedding had been moved forward!"

"Not so loud" he winced, a hand going to his head.

"That headache is nothing compared to what Angela's going to do to the both of us if we're not at the church in twenty minutes" Hodgins already pale face blanched

"Twenty minutes?"

"Exactly."

* * *

Despite the frenzied attempts to meet the deadline Booth had set, it was thirty minutes later that they arrived at the church and both Booth and Hodgins had several missed calls from Angela. The bride was waiting at the gate to meet them, with a thunderous look on her face

"You said he was nearly ready!" she shouted as soon as Booth opened the car door

"I know… but the traffic was terrible"

"There were hardly any cars on the roads!" Booth took a step back, his charm smile that was usually reserved for Bones in place, noting her rage, but Brennan came to his rescue

"He's here now Ange, that's the main thing" muttering something about never being able to rely on any man, Angela nodded and turned back towards the church, shooting Booth a mutinous glare before she left. He managed to catch Bones' eye and mouthed a silent thank you, with which she responded with a ghost of a smile. Booth stared at Brennan's retreating back before sighing and turning to Hodgins

"That was close."

* * *

At the reception, Booth glanced up from his meal just in time to notice Angela's approach, but with no chance of escape from the pending onslaught. She stopped by his chair, and he opened his mouth before she could speak

"I am so sorry about earlier"

"What? Oh that. Forget it." Clearly she was back to her usual forgiving self now that she and Hodgins were wed; "Now I seem to remember that you made a promise to Hodgins"

"I did?"

"You said that you were going to kiss the chief bride's maid."

"But that was before I knew…"

"You're not getting out of this, Seeley Booth." Angela said, sounding stern once more, "We're about to make our speech, so that would be the perfect time."

"But what if she…"

"Oh don't worry, she's being threatened as we speak" she nodded in the direction of a conversing Jack and Brennan. It looked like he was losing the argument.

"I really don't think that this is going to go well."

"Oh what's the worst that can happen?" she shrugged. Rejection and humiliation were two of the principle thoughts that flitted across his mind, before Angela smiled,

"Oh come on, she likes you just as much as you like her."

"I doubt that somehow."

"Just go for it Booth, and then blame the champagne, me, or anything else. What happens at the wedding can stay at the wedding."

"Fine" he sighed, feeling apprehension build within him, "Let's get this over with."

* * *

"So… how's it going?" Booth stopped several paces short of his partner. Normally, he would be at her side, probably with a hand placed somewhere on her body. Normally, physical contact wouldn't be a problem. But then again, normally he wouldn't seriously be contemplating kissing her. She glanced up at him, a warm smile on her face and laughed

"Judging by your body language Booth, you're here on Angela's orders." He didn't question how she could possibly know this, just shrugged, feeling defeated already.

"I told her it would be a bad idea." He uttered the first thing that came to mind, and she smiled again.

"According to Hodgins, she's just trying to provide some entertainment" that didn't sound like an objection, but you could never know with Temperance Brennan… He took a tentative half step forward, while she frustratingly stood her ground neither moving forward, or back.

"So are we going to do this?"

"I don't see why not. It doesn't have to mean anything."

"Right, course not." He knew that at least on his side, it would mean a lot more than it should. He was vaguely aware of movement to his right, and glanced over to see Angela, Hodgins and some others watching them.

"No backing out now then." he muttered, half to himself. Another step forward and they were close enough to touch. He allowed her to make the final movement towards him, so that their bodies were millimetres apart. His hand went to her waist, and a little voice at the back of his mind whispered that it shouldn't be this awkward. He ignored it, but she clearly noticed how forced his movements were too, for she whispered

"You're so uptight today Booth"

"That's rich, coming from you" he smiled, but knowing that she was right. Aware that he was beginning to feel, and probably look a bit silly, he tilted his head downwards and brushed his lips over hers. It should have ended there. That was all that Angela required of him, but something inside him wouldn't let him stop quite yet, not when he'd waited so long for this chance. He deepened the kiss, but they broke apart a lot quicker than he'd have usually liked, for he was well aware of the crowd that was watching

"Booth…" she sounded accusing. Not good. He gave her a charm smile and shrugged

"Who's the uptight one now?"

"Booth" she objected again, "That was…" she didn't appear able to find the words she was searching for, for she broke off

"I know" he agreed, although really he wasn't entirely certain he did understand, "But we gave them one hell of a show."

"We have to talk" she said firmly

"Booth! Speech!" Hodgins' voice boomed over the microphone, and Booth turned to Brennan apologetically

"Sorry, duty calls." He left her side, and tossed back over his shoulder, "We'll talk later, okay?" she nodded once and he brushed his way through the crowds to Hodgins' side, unable to wipe the smile off his face.

* * *

**If any of you made it to the end, please make my day by pressing the big blue button!**


End file.
